What am I doing wrong?

[moorej7]

I have a bunch of stones and I'm getting decent but not great results.

I breadknifed a blade, then went from DMT8c to shapton 1000 to a pyramid for norton 4 and 8k.

The blade can save, but no way it passes the HHT.

I don't expect anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, but if someone could give me tips on how to figure it out myself it would be great.

Thanks in advance

 

[shortmoneyshave]

Don't get all caught up with the hanging hair test. does the razor mow hair off of your forearm? if it does, and it shaves descent, you are good. you could go back to the 1000k and check the bevel with a marker. is it uniform from heel to toe after a couple of passes? if so, will it give a consistant drag agross a wet thumbnail? if so, move on to the 4000k. Do x patterns and and edge leading straight forrward in both directions. Will it consistantly drag and stick to a wet thumb pad? will it mow forearm hair? if so move on to the 8000k and do some low pyramid # like 10/10, 5/5, 3/3, 1 on4, 5 on 8, 1 on 4, 3 on 8 strop and shave. if it is good, it is good. some of these guys have a lot of different hones and a lot of experience. use what you have and be patient. hanging hair is just another test and may not be possible off of an 8k. good luck

 

[huntmol]

Don't pay attention to the HHT - the only way to definitely tell if you're done honing is the shave test.

 

[azmark]

I'd bet that you need to hit the 1K a little longer. If you move too fast, your next progression will do nothing but waste time and patience if you did not set your bevel correctly.

And as the other gentlemen have expressed, don't depend so much on the HHT. It looks cool but I've have razors not pop hairs and still give a nice shave. I shave a small patch of arm hair but I put a little lather just to prep the area and simulate a shave with softened arm hairs.

Good luck

 

[wdwrx]

I'd bet that you need to hit the 1K a little longer. If you move too fast, your next progression will do nothing but waste time and patience if you did not set your bevel correctly.

Good luck

This is one of the things that helped me get over that hump. Don't move up the progression too fast.

I try to ensure that all the marks from the previous hone are gone before I move up.

A microscope helps me tremendously at this stage in me honing learning curve. I started out examining the edge alot during the process, but now I'm trying to go more by feel and using it only to double check at the end.

For me, and everyone's MMV, when I think I'm done, do that many more stokes again before moving up.

 

[Thebigspendur]

At one time some numbskull posted about "breadknifing" and now people think it's just another honing technique. It's not and should be reserved as the nuclear option and like a nuclear blast often times causes as many problems as it solves. If your going to do that you had better be an advanced honer to get a good result.

 

[azmark]

Whoa! Didn't catch "breadknifing." Is this a restoration or just a honing? How bad is the blade? If you bread knifed a blade you're going to need a lot more work on the initial edge. I've neve breadknifed any razor so I can't tell you how long or what to expect but I just know that I've never ran across a blade that needed such a drastic measure.

Do you have pictures of the razors edge?

 

[Utopian]

Put it this way...
Normally when you reset a bevel you are converting the edge of a blade from a tapered "U" shape into a nice sharp "V" shape. You are removing a relatively small amount of steel from the bevel to convert the "U" to the "V." When you breadknife, there is no bevel whatsoever. You are converting the blunt edge of the blade into that "V" and it takes a lot more steel removal to accomplish it.

 

[moorej7]

Thanks for all the help. The edge was uneven and had a ding. I set it away to get honed but the guy didn't think it was worth the trouble. It had even spine wear so I thought it was a great opportunity to learn.

I used the DMT8C and Shapton 1k and got a really good edge. It could shave the hair off my arm. Not real well, but good enough. I did it until I couldn't see any improvement for a while. It got better with the norton 4/8k, but when I tried a spyderco or c12k it got much worse.

My best results have been straight strokes on shapton 1k, norton 4/8k, then on to crox on a leather strop, followed by the leather side. I'm just getting a bit frustrated and not sure how to tell what's wrong.

I'll take all the recommendations and work on my technique. Hopefully with practice it will all get better.